Starting last fall, the Burnhaven Library, which is part of the Dakota County Library system, teamed up with the CareerForce Information and Assistance team to start a pilot that would benefit local library patrons who are looking for work. The pilot also may provide a model for other libraries to offer services to job seekers.
This pilot helps serve job seekers while addressing two challenges. First, library staff needed help assisting library customers with immediate job search needs, but it wasn’t possible to staff a CareerForce Corner at the Burnhaven Library for staffing reasons. This challenge was solved by asking library customers to call the CareerForce Information and Assistance team to get the job search assistance they needed. If the person needed more assistance that could be offered over the phone, they were asked to go to the CareerForce location in Burnsville.
Second, CareerForce needed computers with cameras so that CareerForce customers could do virtual job interviews and other job-search related activities – but the CareerForce location didn’t have enough computers with cameras. This challenge was solved by sending CareerForce customers to the Burnhaven Library to use their laptop computers with cameras there. CareerForce purchased two sets of headphones so that job-seeking library customers would be able to communicate via the library laptops.
So far, Burnhaven library staff have has seen over a dozen CareerForce customers come in and use their laptops for job search related actives that required camera access. The CareerForce Information and Assistance team and staff at the CareerForce Location in Burnsville has served about 10 library customers referred to them for assistance by library staff.
“While I think the numbers may not be the most impressive, I think the infrastructure part is critical,” said Burnhaven Library staff person Chad Lubbers. Lubbers is glad they’ve established a system for serving local job seekers utilizing limited resources, a system that could see more use down the road. “I see this collaboration as more of an intentional plan for the future.”
